A Study to Grade the Severity of Tinnitus and its Psychological Impact Using Tinnitus Functional Index (tfi).

Background: Chronic tinnitus has a lot impact on the quality of life of person by affecting his/ her physical health, occupational health and social relations. It can lead to sleep interference, cognitive difficulties, lack of concentration, anxiety, frustration, anger and depression. The present study showed the severity and impact of tinnitus on quality of life of subjects with or without hearing loss using tinnitus functional index (TFI).

Methods: Subjects with history of tinnitus with or without hearing loss including informed consent, otoscopy, pure tone audiometry (PTA) were done. Grading of tinnitus was done by using tinnitus functional index score.

Results: The mean age of participants were 50.20 ± 4.2 years and male to female ratio were found to be 1.05:1. On PTA, 122 participants had hearing loss and 28 had no hearing loss. 49 patients had mild TFI score, 85 had moderate TFI score and 16 had severe hearing loss. The difference in the severity of tinnitus using TFI between normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss individual was statistically significant. On the other hand, the severity of tinnitus and degree of hearing loss were also found to be statistically significant with p value < 0.0001 chi. Sq = 77.39. This shows that with increase in increase in hearing loss there is increase in TFI sore.

Conclusion: Tinnitus has a negative impact on the quality of life like pshycological, emotional and physical effects. The effects of tinnitus is more in those with co-existing hearing loss.